Overview
- The first round was held on May 31 and produced no clear majority, making a runoff on June 21 likely between the top two finishers.
- Voters cast ballots under a record security deployment after months of escalating violence that included more than 50 massacres this year and an electoral observation body warning 386 municipalities faced a risk of political violence.
- Iván Cepeda leads polls on a platform of continuing Petro’s social programs and conditional negotiations with armed groups while Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia have surged with hard‑line security plans and promises to revive oil and gas output.
- Colombia’s finances and public services are strained, with estimates of a fiscal deficit near 7% of GDP, rising public debt, collapsing payments by EPS health intermediaries and high‑profile treatment failures that have left patients without care.
- The runoff will shape state capacity and foreign ties because it could change counternarcotics cooperation with the United States, investor confidence in the energy sector, and the balance between negotiations and force in contested territories.